Wednesday, 30 January 2013

2013 A Pie Odyssey: Lemon Meringue Pie

Spooky!

In a moment of familial synchronicity I called The Oracle on
Saturday in order to summon her for lemon meringue pie making, only to find she
already had one in the oven. Luckily for me (less so for my Pa) she forgot to
set the filling properly and collapsed the meringue with cornflour so was happy
to regroup the next day and start again. We used Nigella’s ‘foolproof’ sweetpastry recipe and Angela Nielsen’s filling, before reverting back to Nigella’s
meringue topping (from her rhubarb pie). I’d have been Team Nigella all the way but I couldn’t find a
lemon meringue recipe for her, though I fail to believe she doesn’t make them.

Lots of putting the ingredients in the freezer and back out, refrigerating, mixing and I had a dough, albeit one that didn’t look right to me. Now, another trait I have inherited from The Oracle is my
positive outlook in the face of disaster and ability to swear that black is white. She insisted that
the fact the dough was still flecked all the way through with butter was no
problem. Maybe not in a sponge I thought, but surely this won’t end well? It
was also slightly wet as I totally ignored Nigella’s ‘add water drop by
cautious drop’ instruction but improved on rolling out with lots of flour. We
had to wing it on the tin size, on reflection maybe a little smaller than 21cm
next time, as the pastry was quite thin. We added tin foil and baking beads and
I baked it blind – another kitchen first for me.

The filling bubbled away, a custardy cauldron gently plopping
in the background, and we turned our attention to the meringue. Much debate
abound over how many egg whites to use, but 2 won the day and it was plenty. The
Oracle, destroying all kinds of happy childhood delusions, mused that she did
used to make us lemon meringue pie as children, but it came out of a packet mix.
The woman I had come to, to teach me all about pastry once again clearly stated
she had never been any good at it and didn’t see why you just wouldn’t buy it
out of a packet.

It came to time to get the pastry out the oven and we hit a
problem, the sides were all crumbly and had shrunk back in places where the tin
had cut into the pastry at the edges. I felt totally disheartened by this
point, but The Oracle was decidedly more positive and saw that the situation
was rescuable. I guess this is where kitchen experience comes in hand as I was
wailing and threatening to lob it in the bin. They’d chuck it in the bin on
Great British Bake Off I cried, prompting odd looks. “You know you can buy
pastry cases don’t you?” came The Oracle’s voice. Anyway this wasn’t tv and I
wasn’t cooking in a glorified tent so we carried on and I am so glad.

As you can see, a bit of careful application of the meringue
and the side bits that were missing were covered. There was no leakage, and it
all held together when cut and tasted really sharp and lemony. “Why are we
having lemon meringue pie again?” came my Father’s voice, sometimes I think he
just doesn’t understand!

Kitchen wisdom gained:

Follow your instincts, if something doesn’t look or feel
right, it is probably in fact WRONG.

I think in future I’ll make the pastry by hand not in the
food processor, so I can feel how it is shaping up, rather than rely on my
eyes.

Never declare a member of your family an expert in
something, when they loudly protest otherwise, no matter how true you want it
to be!

Final thoughts:

The Oracle may know as much about pastry as I do about wig making but co-baking with her is my favourite time of the week (especially the
celebratory G&Ts) and I am learning all sorts, long may it continue. Next
time we are moving on to rough puff pastry and custard slices, watch this virtual
space!